Problem with Photo Mechanic

[joner]

Just joined the forum as hoping for some help with an issue.

Am running the latest version of PM on Win10. I use an external HDD to ingest and then select photos. I then move them to LR.

All was well then after the sub started, PM goes into 'not responding' mode, crashing in the background if clicking on another window, selecting a folder or doing anything that is different from a previous action.

Once it has stabilised again (sometimes this happens by itself after minutes have gone by, sometimes I have to restart it) I can go back to rating photos, selecting, sorting etc.

While on the free trial it was fine, now the payment process has started it is a real problem.

I can't use an internal HDD or an SSD if anyone suggests that is required, I need to work with what I have and as it was fine before this presumably isn't a factor. If it is I'll cancel and uninstall without worrying about fixing the 'problem' so good to know that.

PM has sped things up when it works but the hanging, crashing, crashing again, inability to click on another window at all thing is a very poor experience and it's simply not worth the gain at present. It's miserable to use to be frank.

Any help welcome before I have cancel and uninstall.

[Kirk Baker]

Just joined the forum as hoping for some help with an issue.

Am running the latest version of PM on Win10. I use an external HDD to ingest and then select photos. I then move them to LR.

All was well then after the sub started, PM goes into 'not responding' mode, crashing in the background if clicking on another window, selecting a folder or doing anything that is different from a previous action.

Once it has stabilised again (sometimes this happens by itself after minutes have gone by, sometimes I have to restart it) I can go back to rating photos, selecting, sorting etc.

While on the free trial it was fine, now the payment process has started it is a real problem.

I can't use an internal HDD or an SSD if anyone suggests that is required, I need to work with what I have and as it was fine before this presumably isn't a factor. If it is I'll cancel and uninstall without worrying about fixing the 'problem' so good to know that.

PM has sped things up when it works but the hanging, crashing, crashing again, inability to click on another window at all thing is a very poor experience and it's simply not worth the gain at present. It's miserable to use to be frank.

Any help welcome before I have cancel and uninstall.

Is the Bug Splat crash reporter appearing when you relaunch Photo Mechanic, and if so, are you filing crash reports?

-Kirk

[joner]

Hi thanks for the reply. No there is no dialogue beyond an auto report to Microsoft.

[ahoward]

It sounds like Photo Mechanic's default behavior of Rescanning all open Contact Sheets when switching back to it from a different application is causing it to hang while it is performing that task.

Depending on how many contact sheets you have open, how many files are in the folders that those Contact Sheets are open to, and the speed of the devices storing those folders, this process can take some time. To disable this feature, you can go to Photo Mechanic's Preferences, and in the Contact Sheet section, disable "Rescan on Resume". This will speed up switching back and forth between Photo Mechanic and other applications, but you'll need to do a manual Rescan if the contents of a folder have changed while you were outside of Photo Mechanic.

If you turn off this setting, does the problem stop happening?

[joner]

It has! That's excellent - thank you so much.

Now back to enjoying a more efficient workflow overall!

Appreciate the speedy help. Thanks.

[joner]

I had another issue with having to put the licence code in every time I opened PM at the end of the month. I downloaded the latest validated build and I am back to horrifically slow ratings and crashes. It fixed the licence issue but it is now just unuseable.

5-10 seconds to rate a single image. Crashes on exit to other programmes. A dialogue box comes up with 'performing operation 1 of 1 items and stays on screen for 5-10 seconds. This is per image. That's slower than LR and ludicrously slower than it was before.

I tried the solution in this thread but it's not working as it is already deselected. Any more suggestions?

[ahoward]

I had another issue with having to put the licence code in every time I opened PM at the end of the month. I downloaded the latest validated build and I am back to horrifically slow ratings and crashes. It fixed the licence issue but it is now just unuseable.

5-10 seconds to rate a single image. Crashes on exit to other programmes. A dialogue box comes up with 'performing operation 1 of 1 items and stays on screen for 5-10 seconds. This is per image. That's slower than LR and ludicrously slower than it was before.

I tried the solution in this thread but it's not working as it is already deselected. Any more suggestions?

There's not really anything that changed in the new version that should be causing any significant performance difference after updating to it. That said, let's work off of that for a moment:

When you first posted, the most recent build would have been this one: https://forums.camerabits.com/index.php?topic=16256.0

If you uninstall your current build, and then install the one linked in that post, does the issue that you are now experiencing go away? (Installing this old build may bring back the licensing issue, but let's ignore that just for the moment and see if the problem you are reporting is actually specific to the newest build)